Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 1 is the Hagrid-sized hit everyone expected it to be; although its three day estimate – at this point – won’t put it into the top five All-Time releases as was previously projected. They really missed the mark and came in sixth instead. Warner Brothers will have to be content in the knowledge that they have topped their previous Harry Potter record and bide their time until Part 2 comes out in July.

The Plame Affair is a story that’s brimming with drama.  It features international intrigue, marital tension, espionage, and betrayal by our own government.  Director Doug Liman believes that in Fair Game he can capture that drama as long as he doesn’t hold the camera steady.  The pacing is uneven, the characters are poorly drawn, and the historical impact of the scandal barely reverberates.  Rather than ignite shock and outrage in the audience at the shocking and outrageous retaliation by the Bush Administration against Joe Wilson, Fair Game is a tepid movie that wastes its talented lead actors and can never find the drama that surrounded its real-life events.

A few weeks ago I got to participate in a press conference with Naomi Watts and Doug Liman’s for their new movie Fair Game.  Based on the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson (Watts), the film also stars Sean Penn as her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson.  While I sort of knew their story before watching the film, Fair Game does an excellent job showing what both Wilson’s were doing before the Bush administration compromised her status as a CIA agent.  I really think after people see the movie, no matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, there is no way you can excuse the administrations behavior for what they did to this family.

During the press conference (which Summit videotaped!), you can see Watts and Liman talk about making the movie, answer how involved was Valerie Plame, the politics of the movie, what changed after Cannes, and literally so much more it would be impossible to sum it up in an intro.  Like we always do for video interviews, we’ve time indexed the entire 40 minute press conference so you can watch Watts and Liman answer the questions that interest you.  Hit the jump for more:

We have three new posters for you today.  They include:

• Another slick poster for Tron: Legacy
• A somewhat clever new poster for DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind, which stars the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, and Brad Pitt.
• A new one sheet for Doug Liman’s Fair Game, which stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn

Hit the jump to check out all the posters along with a plot synopsis for each film.

The 2010 summer movie season kind of sucked.  There were some good wide-release movies like Splice and Predators.  But there were also films like Iron Man 2 and Toy Story 3, which were unable to meet the (perhaps unfairly) high expectations put upon them.  The only major films that cleared the high bar were Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

But I think the rest of the year has the potential to blow minds.  There’s a wonderful variety of both light and serious fare.  I’ve boiled down the number of films I’m excited to see over the next four months down to 15 flicks.  Hit the jump to find out what’s on my radar.  Also, be sure to sound off in the comments section about what films you’re jazzed to see as 2010 begins to wind down.

Summit Entertainment has released the first trailer for Fair Game, which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this summer.  Directed by Doug Liman, Fair Game is based on the true story of Valerie Plame, a covert officer in the CIA who is placed in mortal danger when her cover is blown.  Naomi Watts stars as Plame; Sean Penn plays her husband, diplomat Joe Wilson.  Check out the trailer after the jump.

Doug Liman’s Fair Game will begin playing in limited release on November 5th.  The film is based on the true-story of the Valerie Plame affair.  The film stars Naomi Watts as Plame and Sean Penn as Plame’s husband Joseph Wilson.  According to Variety, distributor Summit Entertainment will expand the movie’s release over the following two weekends.  Fair Game played at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to positive notices.  To learn more about the Plame affair, hit the jump.

The studio has also set Chris Gorak’s 3D sci-fi thriller The Darkest Hour for August 5, 2011.  The film stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachel Taylor, Max Minghella and Joel Kinnaman as young tourists who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.

With its Cannes debut coming up, the first clip from Doug Liman’s Fair Game has come online.  It may not be the best clip to show as it throws a lot at you in terms of political repercussions, intrigue, and family drama, but you will come away under the impression that A) this is mature, intelligent drama; B) it’s a huge acting showcase for stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Fair Game is based on the true story of the Bush Administration’s outing of CIA Agent Valerie Plame (Watts) as retribution for an editorial written by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson (Penn).  The title comes from Bush advisor Karl Rove’s statement that such retribution was “Fair Game”.

Hit the jump to check out the clip along with the official synopsis.

Summit Entertainment has grabbed the distribution rights for Doug Liman’s Fair Game.  The film is based on the memoir by outed CIA Agent Valerie Plame and centers on the leaking of her cover by the Bush administration as a repercussion for her husband and former ambassador Joseph Wilson, penning an editorial in the New York Times disputing the administration’s claim of WMD in Iraq.  The title comes from a quote by top Bush advisor Karl Rove on why it was okay to retaliate in such a disturbing/short-sighted/childish/evil manner.

Fair Game, which stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn as Plame and Wilson, respectively, was accepted into this year’s Cannes Film Festival and is the only U.S. film playing in competition.  According to Variety, interest in the distribution rights grew after the film’s acceptance into Cannes.  Hit the jump for the official book description.

There are plenty of films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival that you’ll curse the heavens you’re not able to go.  However, there’s one big glaring omission: Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life.  There was heavy speculation that the film would make its long-awaited premiere at the festival, but presumably the ambitious sci-fi film starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn wasn’t ready in time.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other noteworthy films.  Cannes is a great time to get a heads-up on a films although they may not be the finished product (a longer version of Inglourious Basterds premiered at last year’s festival to mixed reviews).  This year’s films to watch are Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful, Doug Liman’s Fair Game, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.  Of course, the most-acclaimed films may turn out to be the ones currently flying under the radar.

Hit the jump for this year’s full line-up.  The 2010 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 12-23.

If director Doug Liman gets his way, you should be hearing chants of “Attica! Attica!” everywhere you go in the near future. The director of Swingers, The Bourne Identity and other flicks is now moving into more serious territory with his eyes on directing a movie about the 1971 uprising at that New York state prison.

Working with a script from Precious:Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (man is that a long title) scribe Geoffrey Fletcher, Liman will re-create the four-day confrontation between prisoners and guards that capture the attention of the entire nation. For Liman, the project has a personal appeal, with his father, the late Arthur Liman, having served as chief counsel to the New York State Special Commission on Attica Prison and co-authored the commission’s report on the uprising.

Sounds like a perfect match of director and material to me. Hit the jump to hear more of what Liman had to say about the project and to find out what kind of spy games he’ll be getting up to even sooner.

We missed some stories this past week.  We’re sorry.  But we did not forget them.  We never forget.  We’re like elephants and people who hold grudges.  With that in mind, here are some stories that are a little late but they’re still great.  You can enjoy them all after the jump.